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Claim: President Joseph Boakai denies saying the Chinese Government has conducted a comprehensive survey of Liberia’s mineral resources.
Verdict: False. Boakai, in his State of the Nation address, did mention that the Chinese government had conducted one of the most comprehensive studies on Liberia’s mineral resources in decades.
Full Text
On his return to Liberia on July 11, 2025, after participating in the US-Africa summit that hosted four other heads of state, including Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal at the White House, Liberia’s president, Joseph Boakai, spoke to journalists at the airport about Liberia’s mineral resources.
During the interview, journalist Daniel Theophilus Cole of Kool FM asked the Liberian leader to reconcile his call for the US Government to survey Liberia’s mineral resources with his previous statement that the Chinese government had conducted such a survey.
In the 1:59-minute video mark, Boakai suggested that his invitation to the US was for them to conduct a comprehensive survey, which is not what China had done. He denied that his previous reference to China’s survey mentioned that it was comprehensive.
“I didn’t say comprehensive. The survey was conducted in two counties, and we have fifteen counties in total. While we ask the Chinese to continue, we also ask the Americans. We want to know what to plan for it, so we are open. We don’t have the technology, we don’t know how long the Chinese will take, but our interest is to make sure that we know what we have,” he said.
Boakai, in a bid to attract investment from the US, pitched Liberia’s mineral resources, calling on the US to invest in Liberia and pleading with the American government to survey its mineral resources.
While some publications, such as this one, have lauded the president and backed his claim that he never said the survey conducted by China was comprehensive, others have highlighted the fact that his praise for China and call on the US to undertake the same survey activity raise questions about the consistency of Liberia’s foreign policy.
Verification
To verify this claim, several searches were conducted online to collect President Boakai’s recent comments about China’s mineral resource survey for Liberia.
Among the results is his presentation of the 2025 State of the Nation Address delivered on January 27, 2025. Boakai began speaking about the mineral resource survey report at about 01:17:52 hours.
In the transcript of the address, Boakai reported to the Legislature that he received a mineral resource survey report from the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the report represents the most “comprehensive scientific investigation conducted in over five decades.”
In addition to the widely known iron ore, gold, and diamond in Liberia, Mr Boakai further named additional mineral resources discovered during the survey, including lithium, neodymium, silver, nickel, uranium, chromium, manganese, copper, and lead.
Screenshot of Mr. Boakai’s Annual Message under Mines and Energy
Boakai further stated that the Ministry of Mines and Energy has analyzed the data. The results indicate a significant shift from the country’s sole focus on iron ore, diamonds, and gold.
Conclusion
Contrary to his denial, documentary evidence shows that President Boakai has previously praised China and described its mineral resource survey as comprehensive and the most detailed in the country over the past five decades.
